During the Cold War a 13-year-old American boy, Brad Lattimer, moves with his family to a fishing village in Northern Italy. It is no ordinary village. But Brad is welcomed like a long-lost cousin. His teacher is a gentle hunchback with a lisp who is more than he seems to be; and there are witches in the olive groves who will poison your cat, but not for the reasons you imagine. In those same groves there is a village so small it shouldn't be a village, its red doorways too short for normal men to pass through easily; and at night, on its narrow cobble street, creatures that should not exist walk while a single baby cries forever. On the sands of the next cove sits a pale girl who somehow knows the poetry of the great Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and wants you to drown with her, just as Percy drowned near this village over a century ago. This is the village where Brad, too, will start to dream strange dreams and write his first stories; where, he will fall sick because the village's magic has a hold on him: It wants him to become something other than a boy--something that can never leave it--something it can have as its own forever. "The Village Sang to the Sea: A Memoir of Magic is a uniquely haunting book. It's a beauty in the fullest meaning of the word. --Peter S. Beagle, World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement winner and author of The Last Unicorn The Village Sang to the Sea is that rarity: a book that delicately and perfectly captures the magic we all know underlies the world. You will not forget this book. Not ever." --Nancy Kress, Hugo and Nebula awards winner "The Village Sang to the Sea: A Memoir of Magic is just what its sub-title promises: magic. It s evocative, authentic, beautiful and completely compelling. --James P. Blaylock, World Fantasy Award winner "Bruce McAllister's gorgeous new novel is magical realism at its very best. I loved it. --Terri Windling, Bram Stoker Award winner and co-editor of the The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror series "In our early years we all believe and trust in endless possibilities. Most of us soon leave this realm, though some of us return from time to time. If we call it merely 'imagination, ' we don't reach the truly magical. The Village Sang to the Sea: A Memoir of Magic got me there. It's a delight." --Ron Arias, National Book Award nominee and author of The Road to Tamazunchale

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “A mesmerizing new historical novel” (O, The Oprah Magazine) from Lisa See, the bestselling author of The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, about female friendship and devastating family secrets on a small Korean island. Mi-ja and Young-sook, two girls living on the Korean island of Jeju, are best friends who come from very different backgrounds. When they are old enough, they begin working in the sea with their village’s all-female diving collective, led by Young-sook’s mother. As the girls take up their positions as baby divers, they know they are beginning a life of excitement and responsibility—but also danger. Despite their love for each other, Mi-ja and Young-sook find it impossible to ignore their differences. The Island of Sea Women takes place over many decades, beginning during a period of Japanese colonialism in the 1930s and 1940s, followed by World War II, the Korean War, through the era of cell phones and wet suits for the women divers. Throughout this time, the residents of Jeju find themselves caught between warring empires. Mi-ja is the daughter of a Japanese collaborator. Young-sook was born into a long line of haenyeo and will inherit her mother’s position leading the divers in their village. Little do the two friends know that forces outside their control will push their friendship to the breaking point. “This vivid…thoughtful and empathetic” novel (The New York Times Book Review) illuminates a world turned upside down, one where the women are in charge and the men take care of the children. “A wonderful ode to a truly singular group of women” (Publishers Weekly), The Island of Sea Women is a “beautiful story…about the endurance of friendship when it’s pushed to its limits, and you…will love it” (Cosmopolitan).

England is at war. Growing up in a lighthouse, eleven-year old Pet's world has been one of storms, secret tunnels and stories about sea monsters. But now the clifftops are a terrifying battleground, and her family is torn apart ...

"Pip, a young boy who can speak to fish, and his sister Kinchen set off on a great adventure, joined by twins with magical powers, refugees fleeing post-war Vietnam, and some helpful sea monsters"--

This book is an ethnographic study of several coastal communities in the Kei Islands of eastern Indonesia. Central to Dr. Adhuri’s argument is an insistence that systems of local marine resource management cannot be studied on their own, in isolation from either the complex cultural and historical conditions that give impetus to community action or from the equally complex regional and national contexts within which such action is undertaken.

This volume presents five variants of the Imdeduya myth: two versions of the actual myth, a short story, a song and John Kasaipwalova’s English poem “Sail the Midnight Sun”. This poem draws heavily on the Trobriand myth which introduces the protagonists Imdeduya and Yolina and reports on Yolina’s intention to marry the girl so famous for her beauty, on his long journey to Imdeduya’s village and on their tragic love story. The texts are compared with each other with a final focus on the clash between orality and scripturality. Contrary to Kasaipwalova’s fixed poetic text, the oral Imdeduya versions reveal the variability characteristic for oral tradition. This variability opens up questions about traditional stability and destabilization of oral literature, especially questions about the changing role of myth – and magic – in the Trobriand Islanders' society which gets more and more integrated into the by now “literal” nation of Papua New Guinea.

Thai island girl Thanikarn’s chances of meeting a good Thai man were limited … and foreigners couldn’t be trusted. On the Thai island of Koh Samui, Thanikarn, a masseuse with traditional values, has never fallen in love – until she meets Lucas, a dashing French American musician, ten years her junior. After a brief and passionate affair, Lucas returns home and Thanikarn doubts she’ll ever see him again. But Lucas leaves Thanikarn with more than just memories, including a song that he composes and records for her. While Thanikarn bravely navigates adulthood alone, making life choices, moving to the island of Phuket and developing new friendships, she is unaware that Lucas’ singing career is taking off. Will Thanikarn find out what has become of Lucas? Will their lives ever cross again? Only unforeseen events and the gift of a song will decide.

This is the vivid memoir of a mid-nineteenth-century girlhood spent mostly on the islands of Lake Michigan and the onshore communities of Manistique, Charlevoix, Traverse City, and Little Traverse (now Harbor Springs), written by a woman who grew up to be a lighthouse keeper on Beaver Island and in Little Traverse. Williams was brought up Catholic by a French-speaking mother and an English-speaking father who was a ship's carpenter for entrepreneurs engaged in the mercantile trade to and from these rapidly developing settlements. Williams depicts cordial, even intimate, relationships between her family and the Indians who lived nearby, and describes the courtship and arranged marriage of an Ottawa chief's daughter who lived with her family for an extended period. The major portion of the book, however, is devoted to her eye-witness recollections of James Jesse Strang's short-lived dissident Mormon monarchy on Beaver Island, amplified by stories she heard from disillusioned followers. Strang was expelled from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints after disputing Brigham Young's right to succeed Joseph Smith. Eventually he and his own loyal followers settled on Beaver Island and attracted a stream of new converts; at their demographic peak, the "Strangites" numbered 5,000 strong. Strang saw himself as a prophet and believed the rules he tried to establish were in accord with divine revelations. Williams describes the mounting tensions between Strang's followers and the "gentile" residents who fled the island as Strang's influence grew; incidents connected with Strang's assassination by two former followers; and the ensuing exodus of most Strangites from Beaver Island. She later moved back there with her family, as did many of the earlier inhabitants.